Watch Check It Out, Yo! For Free

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Toru (Hayato Ichihara), Akira (Tasuku Emoto) and Tetsuo (Yuta Hiraoka) are senior high school students in Okinawa. Yui (Mao Inoue) is considered a tomboy but is close to them. The four of them find their life boring and wish to do something different. Andy Clarence (Konishiki) marries Mina (Sayaka Yamaguchi) much to the annoyance of Tetsuo's father Katsuji (Yutaka Matsushige)and Ichi (Gori).She is their first love and they don't think Andy deserves her. The boys are forced to wear kimonos and apply white makeup to perform an item, much to the amusement of the guests. Both men even fight at the wedding dinner and the usually demure Mina has to shout through the microphone in a fiery voice to stop them from ruining her wedding. Toru works part-time at an aquarium as a cleaner. He meets Nagisa (Ayumi Ito) and gets infatuated after she saves him from drowning. She is a waitress but enjoys music too. Yui has trouble selling some concert tickets and coaxes the guys to buy them by claiming that hot chicks also go to watch it. They end up hiring a cab the whole day and becomes friends with Shigeo (Kawada). They see a concert of Workaholic, an up-and-coming hip-hop band that is famous recently. One member, Ryota (Tetsuji Tamayama) shows a lively performance with nice tunes and daring poses. Toru sees Nagisa again but he doesn't know that she is Ryota's girlfriend. Toru and his buddies get thrilled to see female fans at the concert. They start their own band "098," the area phone code for Okinawa Prefecture. They try introducing their music to the old folks but they hardly know what they want to present. The band gets a chance to perform an opening act in Workaholic's concert. Toru is chosen to do the MC. They are no good at instruments and go through the instruction manual frantically. They secretly borrow instruments from the school when their teacher, Chisa (Hiroki Kawata) attends to phone calls in arranging blind dates. Yui helps them out as she has a crush on Toru but never has the courage to tell him. She ends up kicking him into the sea instead when Toru challenges her to tell her loved one as he himself doesn't dare to tell Nagisa about his feelings. Toru yells as he doesn't know why this happens to him. They try Japan's traditional instrument, shamisen to hone their music skills. The boys also find help from Yui's elder sister, Mina. She sews their costumes while Andy teaches the guys how to move to the beat of rap music. Even though they try their best, their performance on the day ends up a complete flop as their music sound terrible. They have lied that they have won awards before but their ability do not fit it. Fans throw paper cups on stage. Ryota even chides them for playing hollow music when his band replaces them in performing. The two band members break into a fight and Toru injures his palm. Chisa reprimands them and they give up their dream. Toru hears about Nagisa and Ryota going out together. But Nagisa cites that she feels insecure as she is 2 years older than him and he is very unsettled. She plans to return to Tokyo. Toru tries to tell Ryota about her intention and later bursts into tears in Yui's arms after being a loser in love. Toru's father, Kazuko (Satoko Oshima) is very supportive while Akira's father, Shuichiro (Shingo Yanagisawa) chides him for wasting time. He only ponders over his act under Kazuko's persuasion. Tetsuo says he is thinking about going to a university in Tokyo. He has a crush on Yui but knowing that she likes Toru, he steps out. The boys decide to hit the stage just one more time - for Nagisa (Toru's way of showing his affection for her) and for themselves. Seeing how Chisa still harbors hopes to get his future wife after countless failures, they decide not to give up. They paint the stage with Andy's and Mina's help. On the day of their performance, they do the gig in the heavy rain. Their classmates, teacher, parents, Nagisa and Ryota turn up. Ryota has seen the flayer on the concert and comes to tell Nagisa to return to him. Shigeo happens to be the driver for Nagisa and puts the luggage back in Ryota's car. Although sad, Toru wish them well and put the matter behind his head. He playfully thrusts Yui into the water. Their two other friends join them and have fun.Conclusion: You won't be disappointed And yes, the scenery is breathtaking. The sea water is crystal clear and you will have the urge to swim in it. ^_-

Check It Out, Yo! likely has flown under the radar of cinema listings here, given that the publicity machinery for this Japanese movie wasn't cranked, if at all. Along the veins of movies such as Swing Girls, Linda Linda Linda and even Hula Girls, what if a musical genre of sorts had male protagonists instead, just like how Waterboys did for synchronized swimming. Sounds like a no brainer idea, but while Check It Out, Yo! had its moments, it plateaued in its finale and didn't deliver the sucker punch required as per the previous movies mentioned, which is a pity of course. And it's not about the gender too.The movie centers on Toru Isaka (Hayato Ichihara), a student at the crossroads of teenage life, who together with his good friends Tetsuo Tamashiro (Yuta Hiraoka, who was in Be With You and Swing Girls) and Akira Motobe (Tasuku Emoto) are trying to figure out what next to do with their lives. Their mutual female friend Yui Haebaru the tomboy (Mao Inoue) and wrestling freak, offers them a ticket each to the gig of the hottest indie rap band in town, the Workaholics, and it dawned upon them to aspire to be in a band too, given the countless female adulation that they will receive.But given that they have zero experience in playing musical instruments, and an even non- existent track record in writing lyrics, it's all an uphill task made all the more challenging when they sign up to be the opening gig for the Workaholics, which means a do-or-die performance to deliver. And in between their training, Toru has to find time to romance his new crush Nagisa Nakamura (Ayumi Ito, voice of Tifa Lockhart of the Final Fantasy movies), the girlfriend of Workaholic's frontman Ryota Taram (Tetsuji Tamayama, from Nana), while at the same time being oblivious to the affections that Yui has for him, who in turn is liked by Tetsuo... my, my, the affairs of the heart do get complicated, don't they?The movie was found to have been centered around this love heptagon, which meant that other aspects that you'd expect coming out of a musical, get casted aside. A pity of course, as there was only one hilarious and simply engaging musical sequence midway through the movie which highlighted their trials and determination to make it good in time for their performance, thanks to Yui's sister and brother-in-law, a large-sized hawaiian man who becomes the master of the boy's new band 098, but only just quite.No doubt the visuals are extremely colourful and beautiful - I particularly liked those shots set in front of the aquarium - but these can't mask the relatively weak storyline despite having plenty of supporting cardboard characters like their individual, feuding parents and a teacher who can't get his personal relationships in order, to spice up the movie. And what I found to be an immense waste, is the entire sequence set up for the finale, which the finale failed to live up to, given that it's just a one song performance, and a truncated one at that too. While it may be cliché to have the protagonists succeed in the end, just like how Swing Girls and the mentioned movies had achieved, at least they left the audience with a sense of satisfaction in seeing how far they have progressed in their training. Here, it became a letdown, despite the potential that had been prepped.However, Check It Out, Yo! Still remains a charming movie in its own right, barring the lack of a punch to the final moments. If you still intend to watch this, then you'd have to do so soon as it is likely to survive on screen for another week.